


Denial Can't Last

by Etnoe



Series: Quick Draw [2]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: During Canon, Embedded Images, Family, Fluff, Gen, Humour, Missing Scene, Simon Arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-08-31 13:43:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8580748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Etnoe/pseuds/Etnoe
Summary: It really was a typical no-good move, Tsuna decided after a little thought, that he'd been surprised by adult Lambo calling him 'brother'.





	

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"Nii-chan?" Tsuna repeated for probably the third time.  
  
"'Nii-chan'!" Gokudera looked like the word was a dead rat. "What are you talking about, you stupid, ridiculous cow!" Then he groaned and shook his head as Lambo looked towards them from where he sat on the cavern floor. "Ridiculous ten-years-later cow," he amended. "Come on, Tenth. We'd better get that - that disrespectful little—"  
  
He wasn't done by the time they'd reeled Lambo up into their rock-bubble, using Leon as a rope, and apparently couldn't bring himself to remember to draw a distinction between this version and the older one. "How could you say _a thing like that_ that to the Tenth? He's not someone you think of as your boss? And in front of the enemy! You'd better not dare try and claim brotherhood with the Tenth Generation Vongola Boss himself ever again, either! Do you want to grow up to be like that Bucking Horse? Say no right now!"  
  
Tsuna wasn't done either. "Nii-chan," he murmured to himself. "Oh, no..."  
  
Then he grabbed Lambo by the shoulder, pulling him away from Gokudera and kneeling to speak to him. "Hey, are you okay? Did any part of that blast hit you before the Ten-Year Bazooka went off?"  
  
"Lambo-san is invincible! A subordinate would never get the better of me..." He blinked at Tsuna with large eyes, sticking his thumb in his mouth. "Can I have candy?"  
  
"You can have a juice. Here," Tsuna said, rummaging through his backpack. A juice would be good, right? His mother used to give him sugary drinks when he got a big fright as a kid, for blood sugar or something.  
  
His mother... They really, really had adopted Lambo, hadn't they? And even the independent I-Pin and Futa - even _Bianchi_. The situation hadn't been 'these people refuse to move out, thank goodness my mother really loves company and the house has lots of guest rooms' for a long time, or even 'I guess I actually can get along with teeny tiny assassins after all ... in a way'. Ten-years-later Lambo had looked up at him like he thought Tsuna was a pretty decent human being, who he'd known almost all his life and still liked - liked a lot, even - and who he knew _exactly_ how to get flustered for maximum entertainment.  
  
"There, there, Tenth," Gokudera said, patting him on the shoulder. "Make him liaison to the Russian mob. He'll see who's the boss then. Heh."  
  
"He's six years old," Tsuna pointed out, not vehemently. Age somehow didn't stop him from letting Lambo do practically everything else, and besides, he was feeling overwhelmed.  
  
"That was a terrible idea," said Reborn from above, climbing a real rope this time that hung from one of the vertical tunnels. "We should wait a year and then send him."  
  
"Good plan, Reborn-san!" Gokudera shouted up the tunnel. "He needs to get strong enough first to give them something to worry about before he runs..."  
  
He grabbed the knotted rope and started climbing, still plotting out loud. Tsuna grabbed Lambo, juice and all, and stuffed him in his backpack to make climbing easier. "We're going for a ride," Tsuna said, totally lying in a way he thought a big brother would.  
  
"This ride is boring!" Lambo yelled halfway through, like a bratty and very silly little brother ought to.  
  
Tsuna thought that being surprised at what adult Lambo had said was a typical no-good move - just a little bit of real thought about his living situation over the past year-and-a-half, and it would have been entirely obvious. Still, even if there wasn't a change in circumstances, he probably had a slightly different set of expectations that he should try to live up to... He smiled a little. Even while facing up to this current crisis, even with Lambo kicking him in the back, and even for someone like him, it felt like these expectations would mostly be a cinch.


End file.
